The one-time home of the Worcester Gas Light Co.

Monday

Oct 29, 2012 at 6:00 AMNov 1, 2012 at 6:03 AM

The building's original owner was State Mutual Assurance Co., which formed a real estate partnership with Merchants and Farmers Fire Insurance Co. to build the block. A photo of the building from those days still hangs in the foyer, and visitors can see old decorative detail on a beam overhead.

WORCESTER --The building at 240 Main St. holds the civil process division of the Worcester County sheriff's office but was once home to the Worcester Gas Light Co. The black and white undated photo from this week's Then & Now feature was taken in the early 1920s, most likely between 1921 and 1923.

The building's original owner was State Mutual Assurance Co., which formed a real estate partnership with Merchants and Farmers Fire Insurance Co. to build the block. A photo of the building from those days still hangs in the foyer, and visitors can see old decorative detail on a beam overhead.

The building is on the National Register of Historic Places as the Old State Mutual Building. State Mutual outgrew the building and moved to 230 Main St. in 1897.

Worcester Gas Light sold the building in 1951, around the same time it switched from producing coal gas at its Quinsigamond Avenue plant to piping natural gas approximately 2,000 miles from Texas.

Besides the gas company (which eventually became part of Commonwealth Gas Co. and then NStar), the building at 240 Main St. was also home for a time to Commerce Bank & Trust.

David H. Tuttle, chief deputy sheriff, said the building still has two large safes that the sheriff's staff uses as supply rooms. “It's still neat to have them,” he said. “It's a beautiful building.”

The building is owned by the Krock family, which owns commercial properties in the city. The family did “an absolutely gorgeous job for us inside the building,” Mr. Tuttle said.

People working out of the sheriff's civil process division serve court papers, such as divorce notices, and make arrests for the Department of Revenue and the courts, Mr. Tuttle said.

People going north on Main Street might notice that there is a Coghlin's Furniture sign painted on the bricks of the block's left side. Coghlin's, known mainly for other industries, once had a five-story, 20,000-square foot furniture store on the property. The company closed it in 1987 and sold the building that year. That part of the building now holds the Irish Times restaurant and brewery and Rehab nightclub.

Time was not kind to the building to the gas company's right in the 1920s photo. The structure that once held Pearson Piano has been replaced with a parking lot that also swallowed Eden Terrace, the alleyway that ran between the two buildings. (Eden Street still runs along the hill behind the west side of Main Street.)